Coupling device.



No. 763,431. I

u M. E. SCHMIDT & G. A. MAYLAND.

COUPLING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 19. 1903. no MODEL.

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PATENTED JUNE 28, 1904.

UNITED STATES I Patented June 28, 1904.

PATENT Orricn.

MAX E. SCHMIDT, OF MORRISTOWN, NEWJERSEY, AND GEORGE A. MAYLAND, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., SAID MAYLAND ASSIGNOR TO SAID SCHMIDT.

COUPLING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 763,431, dated June 28, 1904.

Application filed November 19, 1903- Serial N0- 181,783. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that we, MAX E. SCHMIDT, of Nlorristown, Morris county, New Jersey, and GEORGE A. MAYLAND, of the borough of Brooklyn, city of New York, county of Kings, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Coupling Devices, of which the following is a specification.

Our present invention relates particularly to couplers adapted to connect sequentially adjacent members in a continuous series of moving platforms bearing upon and propelled by a series of wheels rotated in stationary journalssuch, for instance, as are more fully described in our pending application for Letters Patent, filed October 31, 1902, Serial No. 129,527; but our said couplers are also otherwise utilizable. In such a series of sequentially disposed and connected platforms it is important that close and unvarying proximity between adjacent ends of each member shall be constantly maintained, since the safety of the device is dependent upon the substantially unbroken continuity of the surface of the moving platform as a whole and that coupling means shall be provided of such character as to preserve such continuityas, for instance, notwithstanding temporary unequal distribution of weights of a single member relatively to said supporting-wheels or particularly variations in angular disposition of one member relatively to another due to differences in the grade of the line or any abnormal cause. The desideratum is a coupler device which will at all times and under all variations fromnormal conditions preserve with exactness the predetermined distance between respective parts of sequentially adjacent members constituting the moving platform, including such approximation or contact between such members as may be required.

We attain the desired objects as follows, viz: I/Ve impart, preferably to the interior of the eye of the draw-bar head, through which passes the coupling-pin, a bevel, as shown in the drawings that is to say, the interior of said eye is medially contracted, so as to there fit the pin with the requisite exactness, and from such medial contracted portion the interior of said eye is flared or curved outwardly and preferably uniformly curvilinearly in both directions, and we may also interpose between the draw-bar head and the pin-holding member springs tensioned to maintain uniformity of level on the surfaces of the adjacent platform members.

Referring now to the drawings, Figure 1 is an elevation, partly in section, of those portions of a continuous moving platform and propelling-wheels requisite to an understanding of our present invention. an enlarged scale, a longitudinal central section showing side elevations of couplingpin, springs, and draw-bar; Fig. 3 is, on same scale as Fig. 2, a transverse central vertical section of some of the parts shown in Fig. 2, the plane of saidsection being at right angles to the plane of the section of Fig. 2, taken like the latter on the longitudinalaxis of the coupling-pin 0 and seen from the left of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a central vertical section of a modification of our coupling device. Fig. 5 is a sectional view of a variation in which the bevel has been transferred from the eye of the draw-bar head to the coupling-pin.

In the drawings similar letters refer to similar parts.

The series of moving platforms referred to is illustrated, suggestively merely, in Fig. 1, A A. A A showing in central longitudinal vertical section each platform proper, respectively, and b I) b b in elevation one of the two movable rail-beams to which each such platform is respectively fixedly secured, the correspondingly disposed companion beams being omitted, while a a a a illustrate, suggestively, that one of a pair of wheels whose respective axles 7c is [c [c are journaled in stationary bearings (not shown) and by which wheels the said platforms are supported and likewise propelled in the direction of the upper arrow by rotation of said wheels in corresponding direction. To one end of each platform and centrally disposed relatively thereto is fixedly secured a rigid drawmeans to rigidly connect said draw-bar With the other of said carriers.

6. A device, for coupling together tWo carriers, comprising a coupling-pin, a draw-head engaging said pin and secured to one of said carriers, a draw-bar having, for the reception of said pin, a medially contracted and outwardly-flaring eye, means to rigidly connect said draw-bar with the other of said carriers, and springs between, and bearing against, said draw-bar and said frame.

7. A device, for coupling together two carriers, comprising a coupling-pin, a draw-head engaging said pin and having oppositely-disposed spherical concavities centrally traversed thereby, means to support and retain said draw-head in requisite relation to one of said carriers, a draw-bar having oppositely-disposed spherical convexities complementary to and contacting with said concavities and provided, for the reception of said pin, with a medially-contracted and outwardly-flaring eye, and means to rigidly connect said drawbar With the other of said carriers.

8. A device, for coupling together two carriers, comprising two mutually coacting members to Wit, a coupling-pin, and a draw-bar provided With an eye for the reception and retention of said pin, means to connect said pin and head respectively With one of said carriers, the contacting and coacting surface of one of said members relatively to the other member being beveled as described, whereby said members are enabled, Without lost motion or separation, to rock vertically relatively to each other.

l/Vitnesses;

PHILIP (J. PEoK, GEORGE G. MEAsUREs. 

